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@CNAG-Biomedical-Informatics

CNAG Biomedical Informatics

🧬 CNAG Biomedical Informatics

Open-source biomedical informatics infrastructure for interoperable genomic, phenotypic, clinical, and AI-assisted research workflows.

We are a biomedical informatics research and software engineering initiative affiliated with the Biomedical Genomics Group at CNAG.

Our work focuses on the development of practical, standards-driven tools for genomic, phenotypic, and clinical data interoperability. We build reusable infrastructure for translational research, ranging from sequencing pipelines and biomedical data harmonization to semantic phenotype analysis and AI-assisted biomedical workflows.

Our work spans the evolution of computational biology, from structural bioinformatics and genome analysis to interoperable clinical data systems and AI-assisted biomedical workflows.

Our software ecosystem is primarily developed using Python, Perl, JavaScript/React, and R.


🎯 Mission

We develop open-source biomedical informatics infrastructure for interoperable genomic, phenotypic, clinical, and AI-assisted research workflows.

Our work focuses on:

  • 🔄 Biomedical data interoperability
  • 🧬 Translational informatics
  • 🤖 AI-assisted biomedical systems
  • 🔓 Sustainable open infrastructure

We build practical tools that help researchers and clinicians work with heterogeneous biomedical data using transparent, standards-driven workflows.


🧭 Philosophy

Our work is shaped by more than two decades of experience in computational biology and bioinformatics across evolving sequencing technologies, biomedical standards, and computational systems.

We prioritize:

  • 🔄 Interoperability over isolated silos
  • 🧪 Reproducibility through reusable workflows
  • 🏗️ Sustainable infrastructure instead of short-lived prototypes
  • 📚 Open science and accessible software
  • 🤖 Pragmatic AI adoption grounded in structured biomedical data

We believe robust biomedical AI depends on reliable infrastructure, interoperable standards, transparent data models, and sustainable software ecosystems.


🌐 Ecosystem

🔄 Phenotypic & Clinical Interoperability

Convert-Pheno

Interconversion between biomedical and phenotypic data standards.

  • Phenopackets interoperability
  • REDCap, OMOP-CDM, and CDISC-ODM support
  • CLI, API, and Web UI
  • Dockerized deployment

Resources:

beacon2-cbi-tools

GA4GH Beacon v2 interoperability, validation, and ingestion tooling.

Resources:

OMOP CSV Validator

Validation workflows for OMOP-CDM CSV datasets.

Resources:


🧬 Phenotype Analysis

Pheno-Ranker

Semantic comparison and ranking of interoperable phenotypic data.

  • Semantic similarity workflows
  • Cross-format interoperability
  • Interactive Web UI

Resources:


🧾 Metadata & Identifier Systems

ClarID-Tools

Schema-driven biomedical identifier generation and validation.

Resources:


⚙️ Genomic Processing

CBIcall

Configuration-driven genomic variant-calling workflows.

Resources:


🏥 Clinical & AI-Assisted Navigation

Patient Navigator (coming soon)

A new generation of patient-centric biomedical navigation tools integrating interoperable clinical data, semantic systems, and AI-assisted workflows.


🧩 Standards & Technologies

Biomedical Standards

  • GA4GH Beacon v2
  • GA4GH Phenopackets
  • OMOP-CDM
  • REDCap
  • CDISC-ODM
  • openEHR
  • JSON Schema

Technologies

  • Python
  • Perl
  • JavaScript / React
  • R
  • Docker
  • MongoDB
  • Snakemake
  • REST APIs
  • Local LLMs
  • MCP-compatible workflows

🌍 European Research Projects

We actively collaborate within the ELIXIR community and participate in European initiatives focused on interoperable biomedical data, federated analytics, translational informatics, and precision medicine.

3TR

Large-scale European precision medicine initiative studying treatment response and molecular mechanisms across immune-mediated diseases.

https://3tr-imi.eu/

HEREDITARY

Federated multimodal biomedical data integration platform for privacy-preserving clinical, genomic, and semantic analytics.

https://hereditary-project.eu/


📚 Selected Publications

ClarID

Rueda M, Gut IG. ClarID: a human-readable and compact identifier specification for biomedical metadata integration. Journal of Biomedical Semantics (2026).

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-026-00349-6

Beacon v2 Reference Implementation

Rueda M, et al. Beacon v2 Reference Implementation: a toolkit to enable federated sharing of genomic and phenotypic data. Bioinformatics (2022).

https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btac568

OMOP CDM to Beacon v2 Interoperability

Rueda M, et al. Enhancing Semantic Interoperability in Precision Medicine: Converting OMOP CDM to Beacon v2 in the Spanish IMPaCT-Data Project. medRxiv (2024).

https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.12.25.24319606

Convert-Pheno

Rueda M, et al. Convert-Pheno: a software toolkit for the interconversion of standard data models for phenotypic data. Journal of Biomedical Informatics (2023).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2023.104558

Pheno-Ranker

Rueda M, et al. Pheno-Ranker: a toolkit for comparison of phenotypic data stored in GA4GH standards and beyond. BMC Bioinformatics (2024).

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-024-05993-2


🤝 Collaboration & Open Science

We believe sustainable biomedical infrastructure benefits from open collaboration across research, clinical, and engineering communities.

We welcome:

  • scientific collaborations
  • interoperability initiatives
  • standards-related projects
  • open-source contributions
  • bug reports and feature requests

Resources


Building sustainable biomedical informatics infrastructure for interoperable and AI-assisted research.

Pinned Loading

  1. convert-pheno-ui convert-pheno-ui Public

    The web UI for Convert-Pheno, a software toolkit for the interconversion of standard data models for phenotypic data

    FreeMarker 5 1

  2. pheno-ranker-ui pheno-ranker-ui Public

    The web ui (R-Shiny application) for Pheno-Ranker, a tool designed for performing semantic similarity analysis on phenotypic data structured in JSON format, such as Beacon v2 Models or Phenopackets v2

    R 2

  3. beacon2-cbi-tools beacon2-cbi-tools Public

    Beacon v2 - CNAG Biomedical Informatics - Tools (Data ingestion tools)

    Perl 3

  4. clarid-tools clarid-tools Public

    ClarID: A Human-Readable and Compact Identifier Specification for Biomedical Metadata Integration

    Perl 2

  5. cbicall cbicall Public

    CBIcall is a configuration-driven framework for reproducible variant calling in large sequencing cohorts, enabling standardized pipelines from FASTQ to analysis-ready VCFs across heterogeneous comp…

    Python 1

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